Behind the ISO 10218 series safety standards updates in 2025: understanding the real-world shifts in industrial robot technology that drove the revisions (article 1 of 2)

You may know that the ISO 10218 series of international safety standards (ISO 10218-1 and ISO 10218-2) were republished in early 2025 with significant revisions.

Those revisions didn’t happen overnight – experts from over 20 countries spent close to 8 years working on the ISO 10218 updates.

Our recent white paper on the new ISO 10218 safety standard explains what’s changed and who’s affected – in this series of articles, we’ll go into more detail on why those changes were made.

Contents:

• Technology has changed

• Industrial robots have changed

• The requirements for industrial robots have changed

• The way we use industrial robots has changed

• The way we talk about industrial robots has changed

• IDEC is making changes

You can read part 2 here.

ISO 10218 was last revised in 2011, which was a big year for advances in digital technology:

• Apple launched the iPhone 4S with Siri built in

• Spotify launched in the US

• Netflix moved from DVD rentals to streaming

We’ve seen other tech products and services from 2011 come and go:

• Microsoft acquired Skype (shut down in 2025)

• Amazon launched the Kindle Fire (rebranded in 2013)

• Google launched Google+ (shut down in 2019)

Looking back, it’s hard to believe those events were nearly a decade and a half ago.

The general public are likely to be familiar with the above examples. In the world of robotics, advances in sensing technologies have widened industrial robot applications and adoption. Interoperability – the ways industrial robots compatibly work with other robotic parts and systems – has also contributed to an increased focus on cybersecurity measures over the years.

Most ISO standards are reviewed every 5 years. It then took roughly 8 years to revise and republish the ISO 10218 series.

Why did it take time to update this standard, compared to others?

One reason might be that, as shown by key events from 2011 alone, technology evolves quickly.

Another possible reason for the experts to take time and care in updating the ISO 10218 series would be the standard’s continued importance in many industries and applications.

Industrial robots are widely used on a global scale, more so than other machinery and equipment. The need for robot-related safety standards – comprehensive, accurate standards that reflect current needs and use cases – is higher.

The ISO 10218 series has 2 parts:

• ISO 10218-1: Robotics – Safety requirements, part 1 – Industrial robots

• ISO 10218-2: Robotics – Safety requirements, part 2 – Industrial robot applications and robot cells

You may see them written as ISO 10218-1:2025 and ISO 10218-2:2025.

Part 1 is aimed at robot manufacturers, with a focus on industrial robot design and construction. Part 2 is aimed at systems integrators and end users, and focuses on how industrial robots are used.

The ISO 10218 series of standards is also relevant to the employers of people who work with robots, and to industrial health and safety organizations.

Major developments in robotics in recent years have included AI-driven enhancements, IoT (IIoT) integration, and – most significantly – the emergence of industrial robots that can work in harmony with humans.

As the ISO Technical Committee for Robotics noted, industrial robots now have greater capabilities to handle collaborative applications.

As robot functionality has increased, along with the amount of direct collaboration with human operators, these changes need to be accounted for in safety requirements. When it was time to start reviewing the ISO 10218 series standards and requirements, the working group had a lot of new ground to cover.

ISO 10218-2:2025 by itself has 3 times as many pages as the previous version, with significant changes and updates to several sections:

• Terms and definitions: increased from 2 pages to 15 pages

• Safety requirements and protective (risk reduction) measures: increased from 28 pages to 50 pages

• List of significant hazards: increased from 3 pages to 8 pages

The additions include many new sections that reflect modern robot capabilities:

• 4.3.2: Risk assessment for contacts between moving parts of the robot application and operator(s)

• 5.2.16: Cybersecurity

• 5.3.5: Local control, remote control, and single point-of-control

• 5.5: Safety functions

• 5.6.4: Normal stop

• Annex C (normative): Safety function performance requirements

• Annex D (informative): Required safety function information

Updates to ISO 10218-1 for 2025 include a robot classification system. This helps users to determine the required level of safety measures when using a specific robot.

Industrial robots now fall under Class I or Class II, depending on their “total mass per manipulator”, the “maximum force per manipulator”, and their maximum speed. The safety level for each class is aligned with the risk level of robots in that class.

Class I robots, with their lower force and speed, are expected to pose a lower hazard to operators.

Class II robots – the majority of industrial robots – are subject to stricter requirements, in line with their wider capabilities and added features.

By establishing this functional classification, ISO 10218 sets out safety requirements that match the specific needs of an industrial robot application.

Keen to learn more? Our second article on the ISO 10218 series is ready to read.

We do more than just report on changes to international safety standards – IDEC’s history of involvement in standardization spans decades.

You can also access our white paper on ISO 10218 revisions.